麻豆约拍

Tom asked:

Why might you need a boat to reach a Tito who's no dictator, an Israeli Guy who seems to manage, and one who was eyeless in Gaza?

The Tito who isn't a dictator is clearly not General Tito - but might be Tito Trinidad, the boxer. An Israeli Guy who seems to manage might suggest the football manager Guy Luzon, who听had a spell in听charge at Charlton Athletic a few years ago. The one who was eyeless in Gaza, described thus by John听Milton, was Samson ('Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves'). Luzon in the Philippines听and Trinidad in the Caribbean听are both islands - and closer to home, so is Samson, which is one of the smaller Scilly Isles off the Cornish coast.

You'd therefore need a boat to reach them all.

After all the teams have played three of their four games this season, going into today's contest the rankings look like this:

1听 South of England听听 Played 3听 Won 2听 Drawn 0听 Lost 1听 Total points 59

2听 Midlands听听 Played 3听 Won 2听 Drawn 0听 Lost 1听 Pts 54

3听 North of England听听 Played 3听 Won 2听 Drawn 0听 Lost 1听 Pts 51

4听 Wales听听 Played 3听 Won 1听 Drawn 0听 Lost 2听 Pts 55

5听 Northern Ireland听听 Played 3听 Won 1听 Drawn 0听 Lost 2听 Pts 54

6听 Scotland听听 Played 3听 Won 1听 Drawn 0听 Lost 2听听Pts 51

听

Q1听 Why would it be appropriate for Billie Holiday, Patti Labelle, Claudia Johnson and a character created by George Farquhar to drink a type of tea first blended in the 1990s?

Q2听 Why might the following have offered relief to a visitor to London's Royal Exchange: a clown created by a King; a factory-made 'English flageolet' fashioned by Robert Clarke; and a popular form of serial literature from the 19th century?

Q3 (Music - from James Smith)听 How might you string together this sequence of pieces?

Q4听 Bentley's detective, Philip II's son and Conan the Barbarian: why, collectively, might they have been the youngest in the squad?

Q5听(from Michael Gorman)听 Can you map out a reason why the weakling Angelo Siciliano, Mount Toubkal, and the father of the nymph Calypso, might all interest Abraham Ortelius?

Q6听(Music)听 What do these pieces share with a geyser in Wyoming?听

Q7 (from James Smith)听 What kind of tale is told by the plant genus Caryopteris, an astronomical habitable zone, and a stamp which isn't?

Q8 (from Roger Bridgman and James Smith)听 How might the following introduce a cryptic quiz: Elvis Presley, a piano concerto first heard in 1811, a Georgian dandy, and a Colonel who didn't mind if he did?

Why could you imagine Zoella and Thatcher Joe to have some connection with Graham McPherson?

Don't write in - there are no prizes! - but you can see if you're right when we reveal the solution at the beginning of next week's quiz.

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